DA Carney says Ayanna Hunter's killer acted in self-defense

No homicide charges will be filed in response to May death of 21-year-old

Albany High School basketball player Ayanna Hunter is shown in a game on Dec. 17, 2015, in Troy. Hunter was 21 when she died of a gunshot wound on May 27, 2019. (Hans Pennink / Special to the Times Union)

Albany High School basketball player Ayanna Hunter is shown in a game on Dec. 17, 2015, in Troy. Hunter was 21 when she died of a gunshot wound on May 27, 2019. (Hans Pennink / Special to the Times Union)

Photo: Hans Pennink

Photo: Hans Pennink

Image
1of/37

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 37

Albany High School basketball player Ayanna Hunter is shown in a game on Dec. 17, 2015, in Troy. Hunter was 21 when she died of a gunshot wound on May 27, 2019. (Hans Pennink / Special to the Times Union)

Albany High School basketball player Ayanna Hunter is shown in a game on Dec. 17, 2015, in Troy. Hunter was 21 when she died of a gunshot wound on May 27, 2019. (Hans Pennink / Special to the Times Union)

Photo: Hans Pennink

DA Carney says Ayanna Hunter's killer acted in self-defense

1 / 37

Back to Gallery

NISKAYUNA — The fatal shooting of 21-year-old Ayanna Hunter in May by two teens she had a months-long beef with was "legally justifiable" because she fired at them first, District Attorney Robert Carney said Thursday, detailing the findings of a county grand jury.

Carney, at a news conference, said Hunter went to a Hillcrest Village West cookout with several dozen people, including children, on Memorial Day. She had a handgun and was the "initial aggressor."

She arrived with her friend Angela Rondon, 26, minutes before the gunfire erupted, said Carney.

"Ms. Hunter was feuding with one or more persons at that party and after approaching the party and having a brief discussion, pulled her gun and discharged it one or more times at Wayne Brown," said Carney, adding Hunter was "angry at several people at the party."

The DA said Hunter knew the 18-year-old Brown and Pierre D. Thompson, 19, and some others at the cookout at the picnic pavilion area of the apartment complex.

Once Hunter fired a round, Brown, who was carrying a .40 caliber gun, returned fire as did Thompson, who had a .380 caliber weapon, Carney said.

He said that amid the gunfire Brown may have tried to get the gun Thompson had and "either fired or tried unsuccessfully to fire that gun again" at Hunter. Hunter was shot once in the side, a wound that caused her death.

Police officers descended on the Niskayuna complex after reports of between six to eight shots.

They found Hunter, a former Albany High School basketball player, lying in the parking lot with a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at Ellis Hospital.

"Because the grand jury ruled this to be a legally justifiable shooting, no homicide charges resulted," Carney said Thursday.

Defense attorney Cheryl Coleman, representing Thompson, insisted he wasn't armed when he went to the picnic, but instead took a gun from another party-goer and used it to save his life.

"He was either going to shoot back or he was going to be killed," she added. "Pierre and his family are grateful for the thorough and open-minded investigation that the Schenectady DA undertook in this case."

Brown's attorney, Justin deArmas, said Thursday, that he's hoping a judge will grant his client youthful offender status, which carries a maximum of four years in prison which is a lot less than he could face if he is tried as an adult.

"I'm confident the District Attorney will take into consideration Mr Brown's age, his lack of criminal history, the circumstances of the Niskayuna Memorial Day case where Wayne was put in a position where he was forced to defend himself ," he added.

Carney, whose office has programs aimed at combating gun violence, said the tragedy is yet another example of what happens when youngsters settle disputes with firearms.

"Once again, a young person's life has been lost due to a senseless obsession with the possession and the use of guns and many other, including young children in attendance at that Memorial Day party were endangered by gunfire," he said. "It is unusual that the initial aggressor that day was a young woman who was encouraged and abetted in her deadly behavior by another young woman who was her friend.

Thompson and Brown both remain jailed on a charge of criminal possession of weapon and tampering with physical evidence for getting rid of the guns, which Carney said have not been recovered. Thompson is also charged with illegally possession a gun at his Rotterdam home.

Carney said Rondon is charged with reckless endangerment for "encouraging Ayanna by her words and conduct to engage in the gun battle that took Ayanna's life" and tampering with physical evidence for subsequently taking Hunter's gun and hiding it from police.

Rondon, who is free on $40,000 bond, also faces a criminal possession of a weapon offense.

July 4 shooting case

The grand jury also examined a Fourth of July shootout on Emmett Street between Brown and Jason Sellie, who is married to Hunter's mother.

Carney said Sellie fired first, hitting Brown in the torso, and Brown's return fire was justifiable because Sellie was the "initial aggressor."

Sellie, 40, has been charged with attempted murder, attempted assault, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and assault. Sellie, a convicted felon, was fired by the city following his arrest.

"It is also ironic that the most consequential charges returned in these indictments were against Ayanna Hunter's stepfather, who worked for the city of Schenectady, is twice as old as the others, and should have known better than to take the law into his own hands."

He pointed out Brown is lucky to be alive because he was hit in the same general area of his body as the bullet that pierced Hunter's side and led to her death.

Sellie's attorney, Mike McDermott, said Thursday that "we have had on-going and frank discussions with the District Attorney's Office regarding the circumstances surrounding the events of July 4th which, hopefully, will bring us closer to a resolution of this matter."

Carney said the grand jury heard from a total of 24 witnesses and saw 270 pieces of evidence during four separate proceedings related to the two holiday shootouts.

"I'm upset because the things that were stated today at this press conference are completely biased and untrue," she added.

"Her life was not about guns and gang violence, her life was about basketball, her life was about her family," she said, adding they planned to move away from Schenectady. "My daughter wasn't some outlaw running around with a gun and trying to shoot people, that's not who she was."